Los Angeles (AFP)

Michael Mann wants to achieve the sequel to "Heat", in which he had gathered in 1995 the iconic Al Pacino and Robert De Niro for the first time in the history of cinema, told AFP the American director.

"Heat" is about a gang of robbers led by De Niro with a nasty detective, Al Pacino, who tracks him all over Los Angeles.

In 2016, Michael Mann announced that he was working on a novel inspired by the famous action movie.

"The novel is written about two-thirds, and it's a mix of + + prequel + Heat + and the sequel to + Heat +," told AFP the director, aged 76. "In fact, that's all that happens before the movie and after the movie".

In a hurry to say if he planned to adapt this novel to the cinema, Michael Mann replied: "Of course!", Before adding that he could also consider making it a television series. "Rather a film, but the landscape changes so strongly and so quickly, you never know," he said.

Michael Mann is writing this book in collaboration with author Reed Coleman, and plans to publish it next year in his collection at publisher HarperCollins.

The plot will include the youth in prison of Neil McCauley, hoodlum embodied on the screen by Robert De Niro, and the childhood of his accomplice Chris Shiherlis, played by Val Kilmer.

The novel will also explore the past of Vincent Hanna, a policeman whose role is played by Al Pacino.

"There were so many details in all this, the question was always + how to make a continuation? +. Then we had the idea to do the same thing as the + prequel +," he explains.

"Heat" was a commercial and critical success, particularly noted for his photography and his long scenes of action carefully orchestrated. The film has created vocations for many directors, and even the French robber Redoine Faïd, king of the multi-recidivist escape, said he was inspired for his van attacks.

- Legendary duo -

For moviegoers, "Heat" has become famous for the dinner scene that brings together Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, their first appearance together on screen. Twenty years ago, they were both on the "Godfather 2" poster, but had no scene in common, their characters evolving in different chronologies.

The legendary Hollywood duo will be reunited in Martin Scorsese's upcoming film, "The Irishman", which will be released in November.

A performance that Michael Mann, anxious to sweep the rumors on a supposedly grueling shoot with the two stars, says "look forward to".

"Anyone who imagines how it can happen is wrong, they think that first-person actors are exotic, complicated creatures, just the opposite," he says.

"Working with actors who have strong, healthy artistic personalities who are really good at what they do and who trust them is the dream," says Mann. "They are really trying to do a good job ... What can a director ask for more?"

He did not say whether he would like the two septuagenarians - Pacino to turn 80 next year - to resume their role in "Heat 2".

- Golden Triangle -

The director, interviewed by AFP on the sidelines of the announcement of the program of the French film festival in Los Angeles, Colcoa, said he has several other projects in progress.

The most successful is a TV series taking place during the Vietnam War, which will focus on the Battle of Hue, during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

"It's going to last between seven and nine, it's not a documentary, it's going to be a very subjective drama," which will show things "from a lot of different points of view," from the American soldiers to the fighters of the Viet Cong going through civilians, says Michael Mann.

The director is also working on a screenplay he wrote from real events in the 1980s in Southeast Asia, in the Golden Triangle, a notorious den of bandits and opium traffickers where he says having made several trips at the time.

Michael Mann and screenwriter Eric Roth have finally written a Western inspired by comanche chef Quanah Parker and his unusual career in the late nineteenth century.

Entitled "Comanche", the film will tell the story of this warrior half-white, half white Amerindian, "trying to free his mother", a white kidnapped and adopted by the Comanches at the age of ten, then resumption of force by Westerners as adults.

"Comanche is a very difficult project to implement, it's a true story and an extremely expensive Western," says Michael Mann.

© 2019 AFP